I have finally managed to solve a problem I have in my home theater. My room has no satellite feed and it is not possible to extend one. However, I have a Dreambox sitting in the furthest corner of my apartment where it is connected to a satellite feed.
I knew that I could re-stream, but I was not interested in adding a computer in my home theater just for this task. However, after a little research online, I managed to stream to my Apple TV. I am currently using the nitoTV application on Apple TV to play the stream [http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:31344]. [If anyone is interested, I can provide some brief instructions.] My understanding is that you can also play the stream using XBMC and Boxee, but I have not tried that yet. FYI, nitoTV uses MPlayer whereas XMBC uses ffmpeg and other code.
My question is regarding the quality of the stream in terms of picture and audio. Is the streamed video supposed to look the same as the direct output from the Dreambox? To me, it seems quite a bit worse. It is more blurred and I can see noise related to interlacing, pixelation, and motion judder. I know that if I was using VLC as a client I could add a filter to deinterlace, but is there any way that I can tweak the stream itself to improve the quality (increase transmission bitrate, reduce compression, etc)?
Thanks.
The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV
Begonnen door: AMA_DreamBox, 22 aug 2009 13:56
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Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #2
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Geplaatst op 22 augustus 2009 - 15:03
The quality is indeed a bit worse. I don't know the details though.
Many answers to your question can be found in our wiki: http://openpli.org/wiki
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #3
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Geplaatst op 22 augustus 2009 - 15:25
The quality is indeed a bit worse. I don't know the details though.
Any idea if the quality can be tweaked?
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #4
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Geplaatst op 22 augustus 2009 - 15:28
Never heard about such a setting.
Many answers to your question can be found in our wiki: http://openpli.org/wiki
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #5
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Geplaatst op 22 augustus 2009 - 15:52
Its an appletv issue as the dreambox outputs the stream as it is from the sat signal. No processing is done on it.
DM500, DM7000, DM800 Fortec Mercury II, sg2100, winegard 39", invacom qph-031 Toshiba TRX-2220 ku-linear
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #6
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Geplaatst op 22 augustus 2009 - 19:35
Its an appletv issue as the dreambox outputs the stream as it is from the sat signal. No processing is done on it.
Thanks. But I notice the same issues when I view the stream using VLC on my laptop to a certain degree -- especially the interlacing. However, with VLC it is easy to turn on one of several de-interlacing modes.
Does anyone know how to activate de-interlacing on MPlayer (in nitoTV on AppleTV)?
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #7
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Geplaatst op 3 oktober 2009 - 11:51
FYI, I switched to using QuickTime rather than MPlayer when using nitoTV to view the stream and the results seem to be better for me.
I had tinkered with some of the MPlayer settings but found that the QuickTime results were a little better in my case.
The only two problems are:
1. Changing channels (through laptop or iphone) causes the nitoTV application to quit and I have to relaunch it and reconnect to the stream. But that is clearly a problem with the nitoTV application and not the Dreambox.
2. If I am recording one channel while streaming another one (on the same transponder) then the stream becomes choppy. I have the DM7000s, so maybe it is just not powerful enough to do both at once?
I had tinkered with some of the MPlayer settings but found that the QuickTime results were a little better in my case.
The only two problems are:
1. Changing channels (through laptop or iphone) causes the nitoTV application to quit and I have to relaunch it and reconnect to the stream. But that is clearly a problem with the nitoTV application and not the Dreambox.
2. If I am recording one channel while streaming another one (on the same transponder) then the stream becomes choppy. I have the DM7000s, so maybe it is just not powerful enough to do both at once?
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #8
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Geplaatst op 4 oktober 2009 - 05:02
I have also just found out that the PS3 can now display the stream from the Dreambox quite well. I had tested this before and it did not work. It had given an incompatible file format error. I don't remember which PS3 firmware version I had used at the time, but it was probably earlier than 3.0.
However, I just tried it again after upgrading to 3.01 and tried it again. I was surprised that it started buffering immediately. I simply opened the internet browser and pointed it to http://x.x.x.x:31344.
Once the stream begins playing, the options menu on the PS3 allows you to adjust aspect ratio and noise/block filters on the fly.
It looks smoother than using the AppleTV, but it does drop out a few frames and does some re-buffering at times (connected via WiFi). Now I need to see if it is possible to increase the buffer size to avoid this problem.
Also, changing channels on the Dreambox does not crash the PS3 viewer (so far).
The best part is that I was concerned that the AppleTV would not be able to handle HD streams (when I by an HD Dreambox). Now the PS3 should have all the power needed.
However, I just tried it again after upgrading to 3.01 and tried it again. I was surprised that it started buffering immediately. I simply opened the internet browser and pointed it to http://x.x.x.x:31344.
Once the stream begins playing, the options menu on the PS3 allows you to adjust aspect ratio and noise/block filters on the fly.
It looks smoother than using the AppleTV, but it does drop out a few frames and does some re-buffering at times (connected via WiFi). Now I need to see if it is possible to increase the buffer size to avoid this problem.
Also, changing channels on the Dreambox does not crash the PS3 viewer (so far).
The best part is that I was concerned that the AppleTV would not be able to handle HD streams (when I by an HD Dreambox). Now the PS3 should have all the power needed.
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #9
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Geplaatst op 4 oktober 2009 - 20:40
Nice!
But zapstream (the app behind port 31344) doesn't support hd dreamboxes. It doesn't support enigma2, and all hd boxes are e2.
Porting zapstream is still on the todo list...
But zapstream (the app behind port 31344) doesn't support hd dreamboxes. It doesn't support enigma2, and all hd boxes are e2.
Porting zapstream is still on the todo list...
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #10
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Geplaatst op 5 oktober 2009 - 12:57
Thanks. Any idea when the developers will get around to porting zapstream to e2? It will actually effect my decision of when I upgrade to an HD capable dreambox.
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #11
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Geplaatst op 5 oktober 2009 - 13:13
it's on our todo list and has no priority as stated before...
on the Glassfibre 1GB DVB-C...
Re: The picture quality of video streamed from Dreambox to Apple TV #12
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Geplaatst op 5 oktober 2009 - 14:31
it's on our todo list and has no priority as stated before...
Thanks.
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